All right.

I would like to call to order the city council special meeting of March 21st, 2025.

Our agenda item today is a federal update with Jen Cavino, president of Cavino Smith and Simon.

During our February 11th study session, Jen offered to hold regular meetings where she would provide the council with a brief update, a brief federal update, and also take any questions that the council may have.

This is the first of those meetings, which will be held every other Friday.

If there's nothing else before we start, Jen, I will turn it over to you to begin the discussion.

Good afternoon.

Thanks so much, Deputy Mayor, for that introduction.

And I want to thank the rest of the council for taking the time to join me here this afternoon.

I want to just provide a quickly a quick overview of recent federal developments, including uh recent executive actions taken by President Trump and his administration and outline potential considerations for how those executive orders may impact your local government operations or the lives of your constituents.

So over the course of the past week, there have been several executive orders that have been signed into law.

And I'm gonna provide a quick review of some of those key actions that may be of the most concern to the city of Tacoma.

First, I wanted to provide you with an update on executive order 14238, which was signed last Friday evening.

That's entitled Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, which is intended to reduce the scope of the bureaucracy by eliminating or reducing functions deemed either unnecessary or non-essential to the government.

And this executive order implicates a number of agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library studies, the U.S.

Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, CDFI Fund within the U.S.

Department of Treasury, the Minority Business Development Agency, as well as a few other institutions that may not be of concern to domestic policy.

Obviously, uh the city should take note that this executive order seeks to reduce the functionality and the workforce that supports those agencies.

And we understand that uh city is already um hearing concerns being expressed by constituents.

The CDFI fund, first I'll start with, provides financial support to community development entities to offer loans and supportive services in underserved communities to help spur economic development, non-statutory eliminations and reductions of this fund, uh raising bipartisan concerns back here in Washington, DC, with uh Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho and Virginia Senator Mark Warner offering a joint statement that the CDFI fund's public-private partnership model aligns with the administration's emphasis on ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent effectively with measurable impact, noting that every dollar injected into a CDFI generates at least eight more dollars from private sector investment in these underserved communities.

The Institute of Museum and Library Studies is also been implicated with this executive order.

IMLS, as it's known as an acronym, uh is dedicated to providing critical resources to both museums and libraries across the nation through policy development, research, and grant making programs.

Uh basically uh the executive order will threaten roles that uh provide museums and library workers uh with with jobs, education, conservation, and grant making functions uh that represent just.0046 of the overall federal uh budget, as museums nationwide generate more than 50 billion dollars worth of economic impact.

Moving on uh to the minority business development agency, which I know is is one of uh the city's uh, you know, often often um cited policy priorities, you know, alignment with the work that the MBDA does.

Uh, you'll know the MBDA promotes growth and competitiveness of minority business enterprises through both public and private sector investments, policy and research functions.

The agencies functions are codified in statute.

So the executive order ought not change the trajectory of the agency moving forward, but programs that are not codified into the statute that are administered by MDBDA uh could be at risk moving forward.

And finally, just to share the interagency council on homelessness, usage is the acronym by which we refer to it, is an interagency working group that col uh coordinates um uh issues involving homelessness across 19 different departments and agencies and supports public and private partnerships throughout the country to help prevent and address the issue of homelessness.

Obviously, the role within the federal government is particularly critical given the fact that homelessness has been on the rise nationwide for several years since the pandemic.

And so folks are concerned that with usage being work uh walked backwards, there'll be a lack of coordination across federal agencies.

So that's a brief overview of the first executive order worth noting this week.

Second, I'll quickly move on to executive order 14239 entitled Achieving Efficiency Through State and Local Preparedness, which is in support of the administration's plans to reduce the work of the federal government by further empowering state and local governments and individuals to conduct their own risk-informed decision making, which would be walking back the role and responsibility of the federal emergency management agency.

The plan here, it's an order that's directing uh cabinet-level officials uh to come back to the White House with recommendations that would empower state, local, and individual preparedness and inject quote unquote common sense into infrastructure prioritization and strategic investments through risk-informed decision making.

The order does not specify what approaches state and local governments should take for preparedness or how they should begin to take a more active role.

It'll take some time for uh for the cabinet to promulgate recommendations, but we just want to note that it's causing some level of consternation amongst state and local government officials who may welcome some certain reforms to the emergency management process, uh, but fear that the lack of clarity and the lack of uh resources that would be um uh directed by FEMA otherwise, you know, may not be appropriate for how this country conducts its uh uh resiliency efforts.

And finally, uh yesterday, most of you are likely familiar with the news that uh President Trump has now signed an executive order entitled Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States and Communities, which is intended to initiate a process of dismantling the U.S.

Department of Education, which is an act that would actually require congressional authorization to accomplish.

I would note that you would need 60 votes in the Senate to formally abolish the department.

That was established by President Jimmy Carter back in 1979.

And during her confirmation hearing, Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon had acknowledged that closing the department would require congressional approval.

Nevertheless, we've seen the administration take uh take quick action with previous EOs.

And we do believe that the president is indicating that more so than eliminating the functions.

Um, it seems as though the administration would try to reassign programs that have been established by federal statutes, such as Title I or the Individuals with Disabilities for Education Act to instead continue to exist under the helm of a different agency.

So as an example, um the administration would like to transfer uh civil rights investigations and enforcement activities over to the U.S.

Department of Justice, career and technical education and workforce development programs could be reassigned to the U.S.

Department of Labor.

And we understand that President Trump, in remarks just about 10 minutes ago, indicated he would like to see student loan administration be taken on by the small business administration or the U.S.

Department of Treasury.

Now, obviously, the city does not have direct oversight of its schools, but uh you may hear from families in the community and some uh advocates are concerned that uh these cuts will have adverse impacts that could impact uh some elements of the the city's priorities, particularly with cuts to after school and summer programs that augment in school learning and skill building for positive youth development.

So just wanted to make you aware of that.

Uh, we of course will continue to monitor any developments.

And as we've seen on a number of other occasions, we do expect the potential of legal challenges being filed uh by various um opponents of these actions over the course of the days and weeks ahead.

I also wanted to note some very important developments from the judicial branch over the past week or so, um, just to give you a high-level overview of examples of actions that have been blocked by the courts recently.

Um, last Friday, uh, you we saw um a lower court uh get it get uh lift an injunction that was blocking executive order 14160, which is entitled Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship to End Birthright Citizenship.

Um basically the Supreme Court has now asked plaintiffs to respond by April 4th.

If the Supreme Court decides to block a lower court nationwide injunction, the administration's birthright policies could go into effect in 28 states uh and territories that are not included in that lawsuit.

Earlier this week, we saw um a court in the U.S.

District Court of Washington, D.C.

issue a temporary restraining order to block EPA from canceling up to 20 billion dollars worth of funding that had been authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act for the greenhouse gas reduction fund.

Um basically the judge uh Judge Chutkin from the U.S.